Sunday, March 16, 2014

Relishing the charms of the present.

My sweet and spunky little gal turned 8 years old this last week and after nearly one full week of celebrating I am ready to blog about it and post some photos.

I know that I am beginning to sound like a broken record but time is passing entirely too quickly..I feel like we just celebrated her 5th birthday....and now here we are 3 (minutes) ahem, I mean years later and she is becoming a little lady.

This quote tugged at my heart strings this week as I struggled to get it all in and feel like a good mom, wife, teacher, ect....(this I am beginning to realize is a constant struggle and probably always will be)

You will never have this day with your children again.
Tomorrow, they will be a little older than they were today.
This day is a gift.
Breathe and notice,
smell and touch them,
study their little faces and little feet
and pay attention.
Relish the charms of the present
Enjoy today mama,
it will be over before you know it.

Thank you Jen Hatmaker for writing these beautiful words and helping me keep my struggles into perspective.

Madi had a slumber party with a few friends..she wanted to invite a lot more but I put the kabosh on that...this was her first slumber party and I didn't want to go overboard!

The girls started out the night by designing their own t-shirts using sand-paper and crayon.



The finished products after I ironed on their designs.

And no party would be complete without a pink and purple cake!


All four girls...Kylee, Alli, Madi, and Isabelle.

We made it to morning with no tears and lots of laughter (it was two of the girls' first time at a slumber party so I was slightly worried!)




After the slumber party, we rushed to Barnesville to watch Tanner and the 3rd and 4th grade Viking boys basketball team play in their 5th tournament.

These boys have come so far in such a short time and it has been such a fun season to watch all of their improvement!

They lost their first game and won their last two putting them in 5th place as consolation champs!




 And then finally, today, we had our third and last birthday celebration with our families.

To say the birthday girl was tired was the understatement of the year!



Luckily  I was able to capture this dandy of a smile...there weren't too many to be had today!


The little boys hung out in Ty's room and had fun shooting 'hoops'.

And of course, Ty was his usual silly self and wanted me to take his picture with a balloon in his belly...crazy kid.

Check out that form!

Future baller...Johnathan!

Graham was pretty good at getting the ball through the hoop from underneath...


Ty was even nice enough to share his leap pad with his cousins...

He did get pretty frustrated with them though when they wouldn't stop touching the screen!


And no post would be complete without showing this adorable little man, my youngest nephew Noah...he is 10 months old and oh, so cute!

Here's to relishing the moments of the present...

Please ignore the dusty, dirty floor I have more important things to do!

Until next time..